Hobo [Paperback]

Eddy Joe Cotton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2003

On a cold, gray day in 1991, a kid named Eddy Joe Cotton left home with nothing but a warm jacket, some well-worn boots, and a few crumpled dollar bills. His father had just fired him, not for the first time, but for the last. He didn’t see his father again for two years. But this is not the story of a runaway—it is a tale of an unorthodox road to adulthood. By taking to the trains, Eddy Joe Cotton learned the difficulty of life lived on the margins, the fading importance of a once-celebrated American folk hero, and the ultimate meaning of freedom.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After a fight with his father, 19-year-old Zebu Recchia hitchhiked out of Denver, changed his name and didn't turn back. Twenty-three notebooks and a book contract later he rented a room in Las Vegas and wrote a memoir of his six years on the road. Full of Kerouacian philosophizing and Beat lingo, the work chronicles Cotton's first three weeks away from home, beginning with his decision to ride the rails and head to Mexico after meeting "Half Step," a hobo who earned the nickname by falling off a freight train and losing four toes. Along the way Cotton offers tips for aspiring tramps ("If you don't have a blanket you can stuff newspaper in your clothes and it'll act as insulation") and forced descriptions of nature ("The clouds parted and the sun fell like a golden egg out of the sky's mighty asshole"). Sexual encounters read like soft porn. Inspired by the ubiquitous diner waitress, his tamest fantasy involves a woman "[burning] her apron, [quitting] her job, and [lying] across a Sealy Posturepedic like a Mayan goddess." Cotton provides a compact history of the American hobo in his epilogue. "It's what I learned from talking to tramps and from sitting in the Las Vegas public library for three days," he writes; the glossary defines terms like "Bale of straw" ("A blond woman"). Masquerading as a coming-of-age novel/social history, Cotton's adolescent diary is one interminable trip.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The real name of the author of this quirky title is Zebu Beauty Recchia. Perhaps that should be mentioned first because like just about everything else in this gritty journal of the life of a modern hobo, the author doesn't care about what people call him, where he gets his next hot meal, when a "Bat" (i.e., a woman who flits from truck to truck at night, offering a special kind of refreshment to weary travelers) will satisfy his needs at a truck stop, or even whether he writes a coherent book or not. With a hobo, things happen when they happen, and there's not much you can do about it. Cotton's life has been chaotic, aimless, interesting, dangerous, and daring, and this book mirrors all of those qualities. Although I did not wish to join the author on his adventures and I almost always do when reading a travel memoir I admire Cotton's courage to experience the country on his own terms. This unique book is a worthwhile purchase for public libraries. Joseph L. Carlson, Allan Hancock Community Coll., CA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400048095
• ISBN-13: 978-1400048090
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Riding the rails, skimming the surface, June 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Hobo: A Young Man's Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America (Hardcover)

It's difficult to review this book because I want so much to be able to say it is truly wonderful, refreshing and insightful. The idea behind the book is tremendous--a 20-something guy in the 21st century riding the rails. I hear that, and I'm hooked. I'm interested in how a person skirts the mandatory consumerism of today, interested in a kid who might think a little differently than most, and I'm drawn to stories of the vanishing American anti-dream.

Unfortunately, Cotton's work seeks to be a part of mainstream America by consciously flouting it. But a conscious effort to deny the norm is simply a twisted respect for the norm. It has nothing to do with authentic choices; indeed, Cotton's narrative is forced and disingenuous. His voice is static and tries too hard to be what Cotton thinks a Hobo's voice should be. I have no doubt he knows what a Hobo's voice is, given his autobiography, but he has no idea how to get that onto the page.

Sadly, my impressions were confirmed when I saw him read. His performance was filled with orchestrated dramatic pauses during which his band played (they were a decent junk band). But music can't accompany the book at all times, and the dramatic pauses Cotton wants to imply suffer due to one cliche following the other. If there is a fresh sentence in this book, it escaped me. What's not a cliche is a stilted metaphor, and what's not a metaphor is a flat description.

The book is just an armchair traveler's book--easy observations, stilted prose. Alas.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I AM NOT AN ANIMAL, I AM A HOBO!, April 26, 2003

By 

Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hobo: A Young Man's Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America (Hardcover)

So what do you if you're nineteen, working with your father as a brickmason, and he fires you for sleeping on the job? Well, if you're Eddy Joe Cotton, you find the nearest truckstop, meet up with an old hand named Alabama, and jump a train. This memoir covers Cotton's first month on the tracks from Denver to Las Vegas as he meets up with old and young tramps, starlets, and murderers.

Eddy Joe Cotton is a name made up by the author to be his "tramp" name. Hoboes don't look back at their past a lot and it's almost a ceremonial thing to leave your old name behind if you're a real traveller.

There is a constant conflict inside Eddy. The conflict is between living the perilous, well, let's say precarious life of the hobo, and the American Dream. By American Dream I mean that slough of a nice house, car, wife, whatever. The life of freedom is one of loneliness and an avoidance of responsibility according to Cotton. Some would see this as a rejection of adulthood in a way. In some ways I agree. What's going to happen to Eddy when he gets old and he can't jump on a train? Who's gonna take care of him after all his wanderings? What is he truly gaining here? Of course Eddy rolls out the cliched "it's not the destination, it's the journey" hokey.

I don't know, this book is sad in the same way that Jack Kerouac's books are sad. I mean, the longing to belong and live a normal life which can never be had by the writer. It's something that can threaten to overwhelm any happiness or at the least cast a shade on it.

There is a lot of interesting information here, what with all the hobo jargon, and it really does make for a good adventure. Call me cynical but at some points I began to debate Eddy's credibility. I mean how do I know that this book is true? At times, his escapades have the feel of lies to me.

The fact that I hold this book in my hand kinda ruins his credibility to me. For a man who doesn't want the materialistic and is supposedly a hobo, I'm sure he had to get an agent and make a book deal just like any other person. If you were a true "tramp", what would you want to publish a book for? Your concern should be with living, not with dredging up the past. I'm much more impressed with Jack Kerouac, who descended into alcholism and death BECAUSE he was famous, thereby proving the fact that he didn't want success and fame. While Hobo is entertaining and has good passages, I believe it should be taken with a grain of salt.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Moments of mastery; but few and far between., November 3, 2002

By 

Tom Bruce (East Moriches, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hobo: A Young Man's Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America (Hardcover)

This autobiographical account of the beginning of a life of tramping in America had the potential to be a really interesting book. But, alas, that potential was missed. Here's a guy who went on to become a member of the Yard Dogs Road Show. Now, how did he get from being a tramp to there? You won't find out in this book. You only know about the Yard Dogs from captions of pictures that were taken sometime (Years? Months? It's impossible to know) after the conclusion of this story. And he sets up by promoting that this is the story of his sojourn to Mexico, inspired by a picture post card. But he leaves us one month into the telling, as he concludes the book in a less than satisfactory way. Much less. And what makes it more frustrating, is that he has made us care about him and the other sidebar characters in the story. We do want to know more. And if he writes another book, I indeed will buy and read it. There are moments of pure poetic prose in this book reminiscent of William S. Burroughs, but without the gay sex, drugs, and profanity. These moments tell of his experiences in Nevada from Reno to Vegas. They are written so well with such colorful descriptions, it's almost as if someone else wrote this section of the book. And, maybe they did, because author Cotton goes out of his way to credit a very interesting character he meets -- Buckhorn Superstar -- for the help he gave him in writing this section. There is so much more for Cotton to tell us: more about the characters he meets, their background and outcome; the work he supposedly did along the way to keep himself in small change; his continuing experiences after he cuts us off; and how did he ever become a Yard Dog. Plus, how did he get a publisher to agree to print the ramblings of a tramp. This entire book could be edited down into four chapters and leave room for the telling of the rest of the story.